Compiled for the Egyptologists' Electronic Forum (EEF) and the Ancient Egyptian Language list (AEL).
In the first column you can find the ascii signs used on mailinglists for the transliteration
of the hieroglyphic monoliteral signs. The chart follows the
Manuel de Codage transliteration system, which is the standard; however, those who have 'moral' problems
with using vowel signs to represent consonant signs, use the transliterations given between square brackets.
In the second column you'll find a description of the official transliteration code found in normally
printed material.
[Note: some browsers may make a mess of these tables. I'll try to correct this one day.]
ascii___________transliteration_____________hieroglyph_______________Gardiner (in e-mail) (in books)[name] A [or: 3] double apostrophe {(Egyptian) vulture} G1 [aleph] i [or: j] apostrophy-dotted-{i} {(flowering) reed(stalk)} M17 or: {j} [yod] a [or: '] inverted apostrophe {(human fore)arm} D36 [ayin] w {w} [waw] {(quail) chick} G43 b {b} {(human) foot} D58 p {p} {stool (of matting)} Q3 f {f} {horned viper} I9 m {m} {owl} G17 n {n} {(rimple of) water} N35 r {r} {(human) mouth} D21 h {h} {(reed) shelter} O4 H dotted-{h} [2nd h] {(twisted) wick} V28 x contact-lens-{h} [3rd h] {placenta [shaded-circle]} Aa1 X underscore-{h} [4th h] {animal's [cow] belly} F32 z {z} {(door-)bolt} O34 or: {s} s {s} {folded cloth} S29 or: {s}-grave S hacek-{s} [shin, esh] {pool} N37 q {q} {hill-slope} N29 or: dotted-{k} k {k} {basket with handle} V31 g {g} {pot-stand} W11 t {t} {(bread) loaf} X1 T underscore-{t} [2nd t] {tether} V13 d {d} {(human) hand} D46 D underscore-{d} [2nd d] {cobra} I10 y {y} or {jj} or {j} {double reed} twice M17 (no concensus) or {dual strokes} Z4
In paper sources, the aleph looks like 3, the ayin like .
If you have the Transliteration font on your machine, then the 'alphabet' above
(which is no alphabet) looks like this:
A i a w b p f m n r h H x X z s S q k g t T d D y
The {j} for yod of course represents the original Germanic j (i.e. /y/), and not
the Romanesque English j (i.e. /dzj/).
Like in paper sources, the root of a word and any grammatical endings are seperated by a dot {.}, and nouns and verbs are seperated from suffixes by two stripes {=}. (Unfortunately, in the US, modern writers tend to be sparce with dots and often use a dot instead of =. Another area in which no consensus exists.)
When quoting Egyptian words, underscores {_ _} are often used in email instead of quotation marks, so as to avoid collision with the ayin (_'_).
Example: _Xrd.w=sn_ = "their children", _.w_ being plural ending, _=sn_ suffix pronoun.
Vocalisation:
{@} is used for the sh(e)wa, while in paper sources an upside-down-{e} is employed
{:} is used to indicate a long vowel [{i:}, {e:}, {a:}, {u:}, {o:} ] like in paper sources.
Linguistic signs used in paper and email:
{/ /} indicates a phoneme, how something sounded versus how it was written,
{<} and {>} indicate that one word form derives from, resp. developped
into, another word form, and
{*} indicates a hypothetical reconstruction.
Note that it will
not be possible to use the international standard signs for phonemes, so an approximation
in English will have to do.
Example: Afroasiatic _*lib_ "heart" > Ancient Egyptian _jb_ (*/yib/)
A sign key is available on the AEL website, made by Marc Line to function as index to Faulkner's dictionary. The key gives an indication of which part(s) of the dictionary to search in order to find a word beginning with a certain glyph. For instance, if we have what we suspect to be a word beginning with M4 (palm branch with notch), the key tells us that we should begin our search in the r, H and s sections of the dictionary, as that is where we can find words beginning with M4
There are many different Coptic transliteration fonts for use in e-mail or font programs around, most of them not very intuitively or satisfactory (cf. EEF thread, June '98). We'll settle for this set on AEL/EEF:
ascii_____transliteration____ Coptic name (e-mail) (books) a {a} alpha b {b} bida g {g} gamma d {d} dalda e {e} ei z {z} zita E roofed-{e} eta T {th} thita i {i} iauda k {k} kappa l {l} laula m {m} mi n {n} ni X {ks} ksi o {o} o p {p} pi r {r} ro s {s} sima t {t} tau u {u} ue P {ph} phi K {kh} khi % {ps} psi O roofed-{o} au S hacek-{s} shai f {f} fai H {x} [khori] (Akhmimic) x {x} khai (Bohairic) h {h} hori j {j} tjantja c {c} kyima + {ti} ti ^ Supralinear Stroke (use before affected letter) ' Supralinear Dot (use before affected letter) " Dierisis (use before affected letter)alpha to au of course derive from the Greek alpha to omega (see below), and shai to ti are added signs from Demotic.
Occassionally these pass by, and for them a fairly standard email/Ascii transcription
code exists on the Net (oh miracle!).
For Greek, the non-obvious ones are fairly intuitive,
often based on form-resemblance (e.g. theta - q (Q), eta - h (H), chi - x,
psi - y, omega - w) or sound-resemblance (digamma - v, ksi - c,
phi - f). Note that the Greek and Coptic transcription codes are not fully
matching (eta, theta, ksi, phi, chi, psi, omega), partly because in the Greek transliteration,
capital codes are used for capital Greek letters.
Hebrew Greek Ascii_____name Ascii______name ) aleph a alpha b beth b beta g gimel g gamma d daleth d delta h he e epsilon w waw v digamma z zayin z zeta x heth h eta + tet q theta y yod i iota k kaph k kappa l lamed l lamda m mem m mu n nun n nu s samekh c ksi ( ayin o omicron p pe p pi c tsade [san] q qof [qoppa] r resh r rho & sin s sigma $ shin # sin/shin t taw t tau u upsilon f phi x chi y psi w omega j final sigma | iota subscript + diaeresis . dagesh ) smooth breathing ( rough breathing : shewa a patah f qamets i hireq e segol " tsereh o holam u qibbuts U shureqP.S.
Greek Phoenician zeta form of: zayin name of: tsade san form of: tsade name of: zayin ksi form of: samekh name of: shin sigma form of: shin name of: samekhThe san appeared only in some local Greek alphabets, and was dropped out of use by Classical times. Also the qoppa was obsolete by then, and so was the digamma. These three signs remained in use to indicate numerals: alpha to epsilon for 1 to 5, digamma for 6, zeta to pi for 7 to 80, qoppa for 90, rho to omega for 100 to 800, and san for 900 [so out of order and now called sanpi or sampi]. Later other signs came in use for 6, 90, and 900.